Any such thing as decent Binoculars for £150 or less

[Disco Stu]

Can't fault my Barr and Stroud binos that I leave in the glovebox.

 

[Guycep]

I was in the same position, and after reading every review I could find, I opted for the Vanguard Endeavor ED 8x42. I took them out yesterday evening and I'm blown away by their performance, especially at little more than £200.
I bought them to tide me over until I can save for a pair of Leica, but I can see me sticking with these for the foreseeable. I've used Swaro, Leica and Zeiss, and a side-by-side comparison would be interesting, but I don't believe the extra money would result in any more deer being shot.

 

[Primer]

Just got a pair of Minox BV 8x42 for £118 from Sportsman, cracking pair of bins.

 

[enfieldspares]

[QUOTEI have a budget of around £150 for a pair and looking on sportsman gun centre they have loads of Bushnell's at half price or more...][/QUOTE]

Yes I bought some. They had sever parrallex error and were sent back and refunded.

 

[tozzybum]

my bushnells are also average in daylight and carp in low light ,now got some keppler stag 8x42 ,bak8 roof prism .well clear and sharp and only 40 quid.would love swaro,s or leica but cant aford another divorce.

 

[topscots1]

Have a look on ebay some nice older German glass going cheap or the military surplus stuff all within budget

 

[Klenchblaize]

Whatever you've got point them at the moon NOW. Awsome through my Leica Duvids set at 15 power! Can CLEARLY see the "mountains of the moon" and a very large lake-like depression at circa 01:00hrs of the clock face.

K

 

[Hereford]

I don't really know the 1st thing about binoculars but it looks like I could do with a pair for my new venture but I don't have a great deal to spend on them, so there's no point in quoting leicas or Swarovski to me as they are just way to far out of reach at the moment, I see a lot of the expensive ones are a fixed magnification, is there a reason for this to say a zoom pair?.

I have a budget of around £150 for a pair and looking on sportsman gun centre they have loads of Bushnell's at half price or more and also a pair of vortex well within my budget but are any of them any good or should I say any better than what the wife got me about 7 years ago for watching birds and deer on some farmland behind our house at the time, don't laugh but they are a pair of Hawke nightwatch 8x42's, should I just make do with these and save up for a better pair next year or replace these now?

Thanks in advance

i don't think so for this money - if you want new, and if you could double your budget to around £300 then you're in Steiner territory - these are good and what I would call entry level stalking bins imho, of course...

 

[baguio]

Just got a pair of Minox BV 8x42 for £118 from Sportsman, cracking pair of bins.

I have it on good authority (MS) that these are cracking value at full price and very good in low light too. For £118 they must be a real bargain! You could do a lot worse!

 

[Fursty Ferret]

I use minox binos......very good value for money

 

[Blacklab]

Another vote for minox from me . I've got 8x42 bv and can't fault the clarity even in low light

 

[lotuseater]

This won't be a popular suggestion but my best binos are an old set of binocs made in Japan and bought at a second hand store (charity shops?). They are crystal clear with beautifully ground lenses and very precise focus. I have bought and given away many of these old (50's and 60's) Japanese-made units from 7x35 to 8x50. The clarity rivals my hunting partner's $1100 binocs.... They have never cost more than $10 each.

I don't know if you have such shops there but it might be worth a look. I seldom see budget binos that will come close to the quality of these old units.~Muir

This or Ebay.

 

[User00003]

Another vote for minox from me . I've got 8x42 bv and can't fault the clarity even in low light

+1

zeiss/swaro quality glass and in a nice light package. don't expect them to last more than a decade, but £1K+ quaity glass in a sub £150 package IMHO.

that said, you'd have to waterboard me or worse to ever agree to a minox scope on my rifles...

 

[Dakaras]

Get some of these.... http://www.strathspey.co.uk/shop/full.php?q=1118417250

Really good, well made and the firm is reputable.

View attachment 50002

Just had a pair of these arrive today, a whisper over £113 delivered. John a pleasure to do business with and for the money they really are excellent value.

 

[Southern]

As Atlantoo and Muir said, don't overlook the porro prism binoculars, which are more simple to align in manufacturing than the lighter, smaller, roof prisms. That means you can get some really good hunting glass for a lot less money. If you are mostly sitting still when using higher powered binoculars, the extra weight is no problem, and a set of 7x50 are very bright. There are lots of high quality binoculars in this size because they are commonly used by the navies and commercial sailors, who do a lot of glassing at night and in poor light and rough weather.

 

[Heym SR20]

As Atlantoo and Muir said, don't overlook the porro prism binoculars, which are more simple to align in manufacturing than the lighter, smaller, roof prisms. That means you can get some really good hunting glass for a lot less money. If you are mostly sitting still when using higher powered binoculars, the extra weight is no problem, and a set of 7x50 are very bright. There are lots of high quality binoculars in this size because they are commonly used by the navies and commercial sailors, who do a lot of glassing at night and in poor light and rough weather.

Plus 1 on this..

keep clear of shooting shops - anything "hunting" has a price tag. Might be worth going to some of the outdoor / bird watching type places. We have a binocular shop on rose street, Edinburgh and they have a number of very reasonably priced bins, including some badged by the RSPB, which are priced very well and perform well when I tried them out of interest.

 

[mchughcb]

This is the only one I'd recommend at that price.

http://www.zen-ray.com/shop/binoculars/zened3-10x43-demo.html

 

[jthyttin]

+1 for porro prism design, but a few words of caution:

- be VERY careful if buying marine or otherwise weatherproof and don't buy into "autofocus" crap, more truthful would be "individual focus"

It's easiest to weatherproof porro prism by not having center focus. This is referred to autofocus because it's not practical to keep focusing the individual eye pieces to different distances, and thus your eyes must do all the work. This will strain your eyes very fast if glassing in a stalking fashion.

- try to get center focus for easy viewing

- try to get nitrogen fill for ease of mind

- if using for low light, try to find a model with newish coatings

Problem is, big name brands are not making porro prism anymore, they've concluded that customers want roof prism designs. Older models don't have very good coatings on lenses. Fortunately, there's some smaller companies offering products in this category.

I just bought a pair of Delta Optical 7x50 Titanium binos to try for extremely low light use (night time ambush). I wanted cheaper, smaller, lighter binos to complement my 8x56 Docters. Other "musts" were porro prism design, central focus and nitrogen fill. To my understanding Delta is a Polish company that orders Chinese optics to their own specifications and sells them. I based my research mostly on allbinos.com, since I have good experience with their reviews.

While the Deltas are lacking in ergonomics department (like being completely unusable with specs, luckily I don't use specs; you can modify them though) I haven't been able to find any difference in pure low light performance to my top of the line Docters (which you find are also porro prism design, and on purpose!).

Delta Optical Titanium 7x50 - binoculars review - allbinos.com

Docter Nobilem 8x56 B/GA - binoculars review - allbinos.com

 

[The mighty buck]

i have an older set of ziess binoculars i would be willing to sell you for around your budget pm me if interested

 

[hybridfiat]

I bought a couple of ex German army Hensoldt Zeiss 7x30 armoured binos. They cost $190ea landed in Australia from Germany (Ebay). They are exceptionally clear and sharp. Best of all the depth of field is amazing. They are "squaddie proof" too. The light gathering is good, not astounding due to the 30mm objectives. My 10x50 Zeiss were better but too heavy and high powered for hunting.
My aversion for cheaper binos is due to their poor construction and their inevitable misalignment, leading to double vision.
Quite often the cheap binos have surprisingly good clarity and light gathering but they don't last.